Lockdown at Federation today

There was definitely a two-hour lockdown on the campus of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County west of Boca Raton today, but there are conflicting reports as to what was the cause.

Matt C. Levin, Federation president and CEO, said there were "no evacuations on the Federation grounds today and no bomb threats to any Jewish institutions on campus."

Levin said, "There was an unsupported threat to a tenant on the campus this afternoon, not related to any Jewish agencies. At the request of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department, no vehicles were allowed to enter or leave the campus for approximately two hours. At no time was any individual or property on the campus at risk of harm."

"Our Federation immediately activated full protocols to ensure the security of the campus," Levin continued. "We also immediately activated our alert notification system, using telephone calls, texts and emails to inform and reassure all those on campus as well as parents of children who attend school here. As always, the safety and security of those on our campus is our paramount concern."

Levin said there was a lot of mis-information about what was happening on the Federation campus circulating online, mostly on Twitter, but that much of it was non-true.

"It is not our job to police the information going around online," Levin said. "We followed all our standard procedures."

Levin said that after the Sheriff's Office lifted the lockdown, many parents picked up their children, and other students, employees and guests resumed their usual business.

As of this time, Levin's claims that there were no bomb threats to Jewish institutions on campus have not been confirmed or denied by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department.

Jane Black, director of communications of Donna Klein Jewish Academy, a K-12 Jewish Day School on the Federation campus, said that contrary to what many news reports indicated online, DKJA did not receive a direct bomb threat today,

Karen Feller, DKJA head of school, sent out the following important message a little after2 p.m., after the two-hour lockdown was lifted.

"As you were informed, there was a non-threatening incident on the campus, and the school, as well as all the other agencies, were informed to go into Code White (Bomb Threat) precaution mode. We all needed to stay in the buildings until the all clear. The clearance came at 2 p.m. this afternoon. The alert was conducted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department, who found that this was a non-valid threat."